CIVIL RIGHTS1950’S

EducationVoting

Desegregation

JIM CROW LAWS15 mil blacks in US in19502/3 in SouthSeparate schools—separate Everything!

Truman/Ike

Truman-”To Secure These Rights” report on rights of blacks Get equality in Armed Forces thru executive

order Desegregate federal civil service (gov’t jobs)

Continue with plan to gain equality

Ike not interest in civil rights/equality “social harmony not social justice” 1950-Sweatt v. Painter

Separate but equal professional schools not equal Need to integrate IKE-no action

Jim crow lawsKeep blacks withoutPolitical & economicPower!

Emmitt Till 1955

Chicago teenager visiting his relatives in Mississippi

Lynched—brutally killed because he talked to a white woman White men tried but not convicted

Case reopened in 2003 Charges filed, but not enough evidence

Brown v. Board of Ed. Topeka, KS1954

Supreme Court more liberal

Run by Justice Warren

Congress won’t legislate integration so SC has to “judicial activism”

Brown v. Board of Educ.

Plessy v. Ferguson 1896 Separate but equal is ok

Brown decision “separate but equal is inherently

unequal”==segregation is unconstutional Must desegregate with all due speed!

By 1964—only 2% of blacks were integrated Hard fought fight to integrate

Little Rock School Crisis 1957

Key Players:Gov. Orval Faubus-no integration-brings Arkansas National Guard to prevent integration

Little Rock 99 students selected to attend Little Rock HS in the fall of 1957

Ike-doesn’t like integrationBut doesn’t like Fed. Gov’t to be ignored

Ike’s Response

Sends troops to protect the Little Rock 9

Faubus’ actions-Direct challenge to federal authority

Results:Brutal treatmentSome last the yearSome graduate

Civil Rights Act of 1957

Ike-”the mildest civil rights bill possible” Commission to investigate violations of

Civil rights Fed gov’t to protect voting rights

Doesn’t happen

20% of eligible black voters registered to vote Less than 5% registered in Mississippi & Alabama

Southern Christian Leadership Conference 1957

Leader-Martin Luther King jr. Mobilize power of black churches on

behalf of black rights Strengthen community & the ability to

fight back Peaceful protests—not violence

Montgomery Bus Boycotts 1955

Key players:Rosa Parks

Martin Luther King Jr.Help publicize boycott & help keep the calm

Reasons for boycott:Blacks must sit in the back of the busBlacks must give up their seat to a white person

Results of Boycott

Lasts almost one year

Bus company almost goes bankrupt

City leaders refuse to negotiate

Finally-start integration

Further protests

Feb 1960-lunch counter sit ins to protest segregation in Greensboro NC

April 1960-SNCC-Student Non violent Coordinating Committee Sit ins across the country—espec. South Protest segregation in

restaurants/transportation etc